Rum’s incredible diversity causes its greatest challenge: ill-defined styles like "overproof." An infographic shows how diverse high ABV rums are and suggests better names for them.
You make a good case for further information - yet you fail to mention the collapse of Renegade Rum & Waterford Distillery that provided an overload of information & additional cost that the liquid inside the bottle didn’t live up to.
The high ABV is burning my mouth off - Doesn’t matter, it’s giving you all the information.
This rum tastes very similar to others I’ve tried - Doesn’t matter, it’s giving you all the information.
This whisky is young & feisty - Doesn’t matter, it’s giving you all the information.
I don’t care less what field it was grown in - Doesn’t matter, it’s giving you all the information.
What all that extra & expensive information cannot tell you is how your own individual palate will experience the spirit.
My palate tells me that & no amount of information on the bottle alters that.
Virtually every tasting of Renegade Rum or Waterford Whisky failed to set my tastebuds alight. I can only assume this was similar for other punters as ultimately not enough bottles were sold to protect the business.
So stop banging on about further information. Let folks palates decide what they like. Further information is a dead duck commercially as proven by the whole Terroir debacle.
Thank you. I don't claim to have all the answers. What I do have is a desire for rum to be treated with more respect. Much of that derives from the terms people use. My writing is for the people who want to help educate and elevate the category .
I agree with this and rum does need to change this if it’s ever going expand its audience; but hear me out on this perspective. As someone who never understood whiskey collecting, rums poor styling is kinda what hooked me.
Everything I was buying for cocktails was wildly different and it made me want to hunt down every bottle I could. It became a quest to find these styles and names I’d read about and, in the beginning, couldn’t possibly imagine their taste, aromas, and impact to a drink until I tried them. And the surprises are still to be found - just last month a bartender gave me a taster of Uruapan Charanda and it blew my mind, tasting like two rums at once!
So part of me wants it to stay the way it is. Keep the mystery in what you’ll find with each new bottle… and if they do change it, I guess there’s always amaro to keep me hunting for new experiences
Thanks for the kind words, as well as your perspective.
As I see it, the more we can build understanding that rum is a vast category of many different styles, more good rums will be available to consumers. I can walk into a high-end grocery store and find 15 different Scotches and 20 different bourbons. But the rum section will have Malibu, Captain Morgan, Bacardi Silver, and if you're lucky, Mount Gay.
The language we use to describe a spirit reinforces public perception. Scotch has "single malt Scotch whiskey", while rum get shackled with white/gold/dark.
Im very happy about reading this article! I already liked the white rum topic since im in direct contact to rum newbies, and failed many times trying to convince people to try out the funky unaged rums. For sure, it is not easy to enjoy, if youre not used to it. I also needed months and years to get to the point, where unaged spirits in general are more interesting to me (as ageing in oak tends to make different spirits too similar - until the distinct character of the spirit gets lost, e.g. when i tried a bourbon cask aged Grappa in Italy it remembered me of aged rum. As a result I got back to the unaged grappa to experience the ,real’ essence of Grappa). To get to my point why I think this is important, is because we should think about why spirit companys do that. And thats where im referring to the comment of @Whiskey Nut here. All the other guests in the Grappa distillery loved the Bourbon cask grappa, and i know why: Because its made for the mass and the unexperienced palate. This may sound arrogant but thats why the best selling ,rums’ are loaded with sugar and fake aroma. I understand that these type of spirits are just fine for the mass - and thats okay! But i have a big ,but’ here: We all know when it comes to deep knowledge of a topic one lives in a bubble of nerds. Thats not only for rum, thats also for politics, science etc. (Thats my sociological background speaking.) The failure of selling Renegade bottles in my opinion is not only explainable due to their transparency. Because storytelling is indeed very important for selling. The common palate of the mass is very important for sure - i go with that thought. But that doesn’t mean, transparency was wrong. Renegade project in my eyes is much ahead of time and clearly not mainstream. Its a wet dream of rum nerds but they are a minority. They wont we able to buy as many renegades as people buy bumbu or don papa. We shouldnt make the error here to mix up selling strategy on a global market with education. I believe in a trickle down effect of a small bubble thinking about problems like white rum or overproof rum categorization. As i mentioned earlier about bubbles in science or politics, the mass is also not talking about how quantum mechanics work. Nonetheless we all know that it will be important for us one day in the future. This may sound like a weird comparison but i see Matt’s ideas as a contribution to longterm education, not as a capitalist way of thinking - which could be something like take a cheap bad rum, mix it with loads of sugar, put it in fancy bottles and sell as much as possible. Thats not how education works. If we want an enlightened rum community in the future, distinctions of white and overproof rums make much difference. We cant look into future but raising awareness will have an impact, as human development never was a kid of selling your product. It was a kid of people thinking differently and thinking ahead. To develop mainstream products is nice for earning money but it feels like just going with the flow. We cant change the palate of rum consumers from one day to the other. I know that.
Still, if we want people to experience honest rum and its production traditions as well as regional differences (instead of globally standardized boring products), we need to have a look at these differences. Its heartbreaking to see honest and interesting rums ignored by the mass, just because they dont fit in their palate today.
One day, better rum categorization will be important in mainstream. We change. Slowly, but we change.
We can talk about the importance of individual palate and it is indeed important. But it would be quite boring if we would trace everything back to individuell palate and ignore the many things about rum and spirits we could discover! 💫
And dont forget: individual palate will change, too
Thank you for all this. I think I understand most of what you said. 😊
I have chosen to take a role that challenges the status quo, makes people think, and hopefully brings a deeper level of understanding. I cannot change rum's perceptions and fix the problems by myself. But I can use my words to spread a deeper understanding to many people who care about rum. They will then talk to and share their knowledge with other people.
It may seem a little arrogant to say, but my goal is to teach the teachers. Educate them about rum, both good and bad, and without any brand-specific agenda.
That makes sense and im very grateful for your contribution! 🙏 i just had many things on my mind especially after reading the comments underneath your post
Sure! A better term would be "high congener". Only a small fraction of a rum's flavor comes from esters, but esters are a term that some people have latched on to.
High congener rums come from pushing the fermentation process to create for more congeners than would normally be produced. Haitian clarins are a good example. A better known example is certain Jamaican rums.
Thanks for this, I always welcome a trip with you down one of your many rum rabbit holes! At first read, I am not really grasping how this creates a taxonomy for overproof rums. I can see where some of the others would fall (e.g., Denros which I tried in St Lucia last February, beloved Hamilton 151, and my vintage bottle of Bacardi 151). However, I don't see where I would place a Gosling Black Seal 151 (available in my local liquor outlet, but I have not purchased any) or a Clement Private Cask offering (toured their facility last February, I did buy another bottle but do not recall them offering this series) which I see are bottled at around 122 proof. The Clement says "aged 4 years" so that probably qualifies as your "aged", while the Gosling is described on their website as "dark" and "muscular" and "deep, rich" - so no sign of any age statement but I would guess less than 4 years.
My point wasn't to create a taxonomy for overproof rums. My point is to say that ABV is just one aspect of describing a rum, and not the most important part when it comes to flavor!
I contend that there are better ways to lump similar rums together. For example, "cane juice rum", or "Jamaica Rum". Adding things like "aged" or "overproof" further narrows down the set of rums under discussion.
You make a good case for further information - yet you fail to mention the collapse of Renegade Rum & Waterford Distillery that provided an overload of information & additional cost that the liquid inside the bottle didn’t live up to.
The high ABV is burning my mouth off - Doesn’t matter, it’s giving you all the information.
This rum tastes very similar to others I’ve tried - Doesn’t matter, it’s giving you all the information.
This whisky is young & feisty - Doesn’t matter, it’s giving you all the information.
I don’t care less what field it was grown in - Doesn’t matter, it’s giving you all the information.
What all that extra & expensive information cannot tell you is how your own individual palate will experience the spirit.
My palate tells me that & no amount of information on the bottle alters that.
Virtually every tasting of Renegade Rum or Waterford Whisky failed to set my tastebuds alight. I can only assume this was similar for other punters as ultimately not enough bottles were sold to protect the business.
So stop banging on about further information. Let folks palates decide what they like. Further information is a dead duck commercially as proven by the whole Terroir debacle.
om een ganse kudde schapen in beweging te krijgen heb je slechts een wel getrainde hond nodig .
Deze rol kan door de blenders en/of distilleerders ( diegenen die rum op de markt brengen ) op genomen worden.
Ik spreek over WEL getrainde ... wat inhoud klaar en duidelijke taal spreken op het etiket .
En niet willekeurige tekst die in de oren klinken om winst ( wat eigenlijk wel de bedoeling is ) ; zoals bevoordeeld je vorig post aangeeft .
Ik vind het bemoedens waardig dat je dit blijft aanhalen .
Thank you. I don't claim to have all the answers. What I do have is a desire for rum to be treated with more respect. Much of that derives from the terms people use. My writing is for the people who want to help educate and elevate the category .
I agree with this and rum does need to change this if it’s ever going expand its audience; but hear me out on this perspective. As someone who never understood whiskey collecting, rums poor styling is kinda what hooked me.
Everything I was buying for cocktails was wildly different and it made me want to hunt down every bottle I could. It became a quest to find these styles and names I’d read about and, in the beginning, couldn’t possibly imagine their taste, aromas, and impact to a drink until I tried them. And the surprises are still to be found - just last month a bartender gave me a taster of Uruapan Charanda and it blew my mind, tasting like two rums at once!
So part of me wants it to stay the way it is. Keep the mystery in what you’ll find with each new bottle… and if they do change it, I guess there’s always amaro to keep me hunting for new experiences
Thanks for writing these articles :)
Thanks for the kind words, as well as your perspective.
As I see it, the more we can build understanding that rum is a vast category of many different styles, more good rums will be available to consumers. I can walk into a high-end grocery store and find 15 different Scotches and 20 different bourbons. But the rum section will have Malibu, Captain Morgan, Bacardi Silver, and if you're lucky, Mount Gay.
The language we use to describe a spirit reinforces public perception. Scotch has "single malt Scotch whiskey", while rum get shackled with white/gold/dark.
I agree!!!! I jave no words, just bad tastes in my mouth!
Have. Not "Jave". I'll blame that on the overproof float that added nothing to my drink except a tendancy towards typos. Lol
Im very happy about reading this article! I already liked the white rum topic since im in direct contact to rum newbies, and failed many times trying to convince people to try out the funky unaged rums. For sure, it is not easy to enjoy, if youre not used to it. I also needed months and years to get to the point, where unaged spirits in general are more interesting to me (as ageing in oak tends to make different spirits too similar - until the distinct character of the spirit gets lost, e.g. when i tried a bourbon cask aged Grappa in Italy it remembered me of aged rum. As a result I got back to the unaged grappa to experience the ,real’ essence of Grappa). To get to my point why I think this is important, is because we should think about why spirit companys do that. And thats where im referring to the comment of @Whiskey Nut here. All the other guests in the Grappa distillery loved the Bourbon cask grappa, and i know why: Because its made for the mass and the unexperienced palate. This may sound arrogant but thats why the best selling ,rums’ are loaded with sugar and fake aroma. I understand that these type of spirits are just fine for the mass - and thats okay! But i have a big ,but’ here: We all know when it comes to deep knowledge of a topic one lives in a bubble of nerds. Thats not only for rum, thats also for politics, science etc. (Thats my sociological background speaking.) The failure of selling Renegade bottles in my opinion is not only explainable due to their transparency. Because storytelling is indeed very important for selling. The common palate of the mass is very important for sure - i go with that thought. But that doesn’t mean, transparency was wrong. Renegade project in my eyes is much ahead of time and clearly not mainstream. Its a wet dream of rum nerds but they are a minority. They wont we able to buy as many renegades as people buy bumbu or don papa. We shouldnt make the error here to mix up selling strategy on a global market with education. I believe in a trickle down effect of a small bubble thinking about problems like white rum or overproof rum categorization. As i mentioned earlier about bubbles in science or politics, the mass is also not talking about how quantum mechanics work. Nonetheless we all know that it will be important for us one day in the future. This may sound like a weird comparison but i see Matt’s ideas as a contribution to longterm education, not as a capitalist way of thinking - which could be something like take a cheap bad rum, mix it with loads of sugar, put it in fancy bottles and sell as much as possible. Thats not how education works. If we want an enlightened rum community in the future, distinctions of white and overproof rums make much difference. We cant look into future but raising awareness will have an impact, as human development never was a kid of selling your product. It was a kid of people thinking differently and thinking ahead. To develop mainstream products is nice for earning money but it feels like just going with the flow. We cant change the palate of rum consumers from one day to the other. I know that.
Still, if we want people to experience honest rum and its production traditions as well as regional differences (instead of globally standardized boring products), we need to have a look at these differences. Its heartbreaking to see honest and interesting rums ignored by the mass, just because they dont fit in their palate today.
One day, better rum categorization will be important in mainstream. We change. Slowly, but we change.
We can talk about the importance of individual palate and it is indeed important. But it would be quite boring if we would trace everything back to individuell palate and ignore the many things about rum and spirits we could discover! 💫
And dont forget: individual palate will change, too
Thank you for all this. I think I understand most of what you said. 😊
I have chosen to take a role that challenges the status quo, makes people think, and hopefully brings a deeper level of understanding. I cannot change rum's perceptions and fix the problems by myself. But I can use my words to spread a deeper understanding to many people who care about rum. They will then talk to and share their knowledge with other people.
It may seem a little arrogant to say, but my goal is to teach the teachers. Educate them about rum, both good and bad, and without any brand-specific agenda.
That makes sense and im very grateful for your contribution! 🙏 i just had many things on my mind especially after reading the comments underneath your post
I’d love to hear some explanation of the “high ester” runs. Are those like the Haitian clairins?
Sure! A better term would be "high congener". Only a small fraction of a rum's flavor comes from esters, but esters are a term that some people have latched on to.
High congener rums come from pushing the fermentation process to create for more congeners than would normally be produced. Haitian clarins are a good example. A better known example is certain Jamaican rums.
Here's some background reading:
https://www.rumwonk.com/p/esters-volatile-compounds-and-congeners
Thanks for this, I always welcome a trip with you down one of your many rum rabbit holes! At first read, I am not really grasping how this creates a taxonomy for overproof rums. I can see where some of the others would fall (e.g., Denros which I tried in St Lucia last February, beloved Hamilton 151, and my vintage bottle of Bacardi 151). However, I don't see where I would place a Gosling Black Seal 151 (available in my local liquor outlet, but I have not purchased any) or a Clement Private Cask offering (toured their facility last February, I did buy another bottle but do not recall them offering this series) which I see are bottled at around 122 proof. The Clement says "aged 4 years" so that probably qualifies as your "aged", while the Gosling is described on their website as "dark" and "muscular" and "deep, rich" - so no sign of any age statement but I would guess less than 4 years.
What do we do now?!
Andy B
Hey Andy,
My point wasn't to create a taxonomy for overproof rums. My point is to say that ABV is just one aspect of describing a rum, and not the most important part when it comes to flavor!
I contend that there are better ways to lump similar rums together. For example, "cane juice rum", or "Jamaica Rum". Adding things like "aged" or "overproof" further narrows down the set of rums under discussion.